himself, again, and began to take an
interest once more, in the persons and things around him.

"Galleygo, my old fellow-cruiser," he said, "I leave Sir Gervaise more
particularly in your care. As we advance in life, our friends decrease
in numbers; it is only those that have been well tried that we can rely
on."

"Yes, Admiral Blue, I knows that, and so does Sir Jarvy. Yes, old
shipmates afore young 'uns, any day, and old sailors, too, afore green
hands. Sir Jarvy's Bowlderos are good plate-holders, and the likes of
that; but when it comes to heavy weather, and a hard strain, I thinks
but little on 'em, all put together."

"By the way, Oakes," said Bluewater, with a sudden interest in such a
subject, that he never expected to feel again, "I have heard nothing of
the first day's work, in which, through the little I have gleaned, by
listening to those around me, I understand you took a two-decker,
besides dismasting the French admiral?"

"Pardon me, Dick; you had better try and catch a little sleep; the
subject of those two days' work is really painful to me."

"Well, then, Sir Jarvy, if you has an avarsion to telling the story to
Admiral Blue, I can do it, your honour," put in Galleygo, who gloried in
giving a graphic description of a sea-fight. "I thinks, now, a history
of that day will comfort a flag-hofficer as has been so badly wounded
himself."

Bluewater offering no opposition, Galleygo proceeded with his account of
the evolutions of the ships, as we have already described them,
succeeding surprisingly well in rendering the narrative interesting, and
making himself perfectly intelligible and clear, by his thorough
knowledge, and ready use, of the necessary nautical terms. When he came
to the moment in which the English line separated, part passing to
windward, and part to leeward of the two French ships, he related the
incident in so clear and spirited a manner, that the commander-in-chief
himself dropped his pen, and sat listening with pleasure.

"Who could imagine, Dick," Sir Gervaise observed, "that those fellows in
the tops watch us so closely, and could give so accurate an account of
what passes!"

"Ah! Gervaise, and what is the vigilance of Galleygo to that of the
All-seeing eye! It is a terrible thought, at an hour like this, to
remember that nothing can be forgotten. I have somewhere read that not
an oath is uttered that does not continue to vibrate through all time,
in the wide-spreading current